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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The youth vote is becoming a factor in the upcoming presidential race. The founder of the Zogby Poll spoke at Villanova University last week on polling trends.

John Zogby says young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 were almost being written off in the upcoming general election because they had become so disillusioned with President Obama. Obama relied heavily on that group in the last presidential contest.

“This is a jaded group, that in the past 3-and-a-half years, this group has experienced some tough times, so we have seen Obama’s numbers actually go down in terms of approval ratings into the high 30’s, low 40’s. We see him climbing back up now, almost to 60 percent approval among 18-29 year-olds.”

Zogby says part of that is the president’s push now for a freeze on student loan interest rates.

He says before the Republicans started introducing laws calling for mandatory ultra sounds for women getting an abortion, the youth vote was pretty quiet. Not anymore. Zogby says young women, who in general have taken contraception for granted, are taking notice.

“There’s a sense of defensiveness now, a sensibility that they need to protect a personal and private issue. So for Republicans, it’s a mistake clearly, and polling shows how big a mistake it is.”

When the contraception issue went national, those approval ratings went into the 60s.